A Sewing family arrived in America in 1843…a father, mother, and 3 children. Now, our museum has a family book called the Sewing Circle documenting this family and their descendants. That book is more than an inch thick. Today, you will read about those original Sewing’s. The story begins in Kleekamp, Germany.

Friedrich Wilhelm Sewing was born on June 4, 1812, the son of Gerhardt and Catharine (Tepe) Sewing. The Sewing Circle book says that Friedrich was a member of the church in Dissen prior to his marriage. Below are photos of the exterior and interior of the church in Dissen.

Now I will introduce you to Friedrich’s first wife. Her name was Catherina Wilhelmina Koch, who was born on December 13, 1810 in Winkelshütten, Germany. She was the daughter of Franz and Catherina (Brockmeier) Koch. The transcription of her baptism record in Germany is displayed here. She was baptized in the Borgholzhausen parish.

The map below should help you understand the area in which both Friedrich and Catherine were from. You can see that the Borgholzhausen parish was located between Kleekamp and Winkelshutten. Also, all of these towns were near the city of Dissen, which is what the town of Friedheim, where the Sewing family would settle in America, was originally named before it was changed to Friedheim.

Below are photos of the exterior and interior of the Borgholzhausen church.

Friedrich Sewing married Catherine Koch in 1836 at the Borgholzhausen parish. The marriage record below does not give an exact date for this wedding, but the Sewing Circle book gives this date as October 8, 1836.

This Sewing couple had 3 children born in Germany before they came to the United States. In 1843, they made their voyage to this country aboard the ship, Diana. I have included some names found on the passenger list right above the Sewing’s for a Grossheider family. That was another name that shows up in the early records in the Trinity Lutheran Church books. Gerhardt Sewing’s sister had married a Grossheider and that Grossheider family arrived in America a few years earlier. You can also see the names, Kleekamp and Borgholzhausen on this list.

Four more children were born to this couple in America. The first of those has his baptism record in the books of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Before Trinity, Friedheim got their first called pastor and kept their own records, Rev. Charles Gruber would travel to Friedheim to conduct services for the Lutherans there and also performed official acts like baptisms and weddings. The remaining 3 Sewing children have their baptism records in the Trinity, Friedheim books.

For some unknown reason, entries from the 1850 and 1860 censuses for the Sewing’s cannot be found. In the 1870 census, we find the Sewing’s living in the Apple Creek Township where Freidrich was a farmer. Just one child remained in their household.

Later in 1870, Catherine Wilhelmina Sewing died at the age of 59. She is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Friedheim.

Friedrich Sewing would get married again, and it is the date of his second wedding that led me to write this story today. The second wife of Friedrich Sewing was also a Koch. Her name was Wilhelmina Charlotte Koch, who was born in about 1822 in Germany. The Sewing Circle book says that Charlotte was a widow, and her maiden name was unknown, nor the name of her first husband. Friedrich Sewing married Charlotte Koch on August 10, 1875, so today would be their special 150th wedding anniversary. The Sewing/Koch wedding took place at Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Louis, and since that congregation’s records are found in the Ancestry.com’s Missouri Synod collection, we can view this church marriage record for this pair. Please note that Freidrich was from Dissen, Missouri. The name was not changed to Friedheim yet. Also, you can see that Charlotte was from St. Louis.

We can also take a look at a St. Louis civil record for this occasion. This document indicates that Rev. J.F. Buenger performed the wedding.

The Sewing’s are found in the 1876 Missouri state census living in Cape Girardeau County.

Next, we find the Sewing’s in the 1880 census. Friedrich and Charlotte had an empty nest, and Friedrich, at the age of 68 was still farming.

A paragraph found in the Sewing Circle book gives the following information about Charlotte Sewing.

We have this image of Friedrich Sewing that is found in the Sewing Circle book.

Friedrich did not live long enough to be found in the 1900 census. He died in 1891 at the age of 78. He died at the time when Cape Girardeau County was keeping death records. Friedrich’s death record is pictured here in 2 images. This document says Friedrich was a widower.

Friedrich Sewing is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Friedheim.

The Sewing sons from this family carried on the Sewing surname to the next generation, and many of them had sons, so not only did the Sewing family tree get quite large, but there were also many of them that hung on to the Sewing name. That Sewing surname is one that we can definitely call a “Friedheim name”.